Al-Fayed is already 73 years old, but judging from the way he dresses, he still has the meticulous style of an old money man.
It is said that when he first came to Europe, in order to integrate into the upper class society, Al Fayed specially hired a black valet who had served the Duke of Windsor for nearly 30 years to teach him about aristocratic life, including various details of dress etiquette and hobbies.
It is obvious that by now he has integrated all of this into his every move.
"Your Highness, in fact, before this, it was not for sale. The lofty status of Harrods cannot be compared with Marks & Spencer or Sainsbury's."
Al Fayed said this when talking about Harrods.
"In my opinion, there is no such thing as something that is not for sale in this world. It's just a matter of price..."
Barron smiled and said to him:
"The difference is that I believe that after more than 20 years of operation, you have developed some feelings for Harrods and hope that it can get a better owner so that it can continue its glory."
His meaning was self-evident. If Harrods needed a better operator, then there were probably only a handful of people in the whole of Britain, or even the world, who were more suitable than Barron, in terms of wealth, status and even resources.
As mentioned before, Al Fayed is 73 years old, and he may have already thought about retiring. In Barron's previous life, Harrods was sold to Qatar Holding Company owned by the Qatari royal family for more than 1.5 billion pounds in 2010 because he had decided to retire and hoped to have more time to share family life with his children and grandchildren.
Barron's bid for the department store was $2 billion. Al-Fayed spent $600 million to buy Harrods. If he chooses to sell it now, he will not only be able to get nearly 2.5 times the profit, but the profits that Harrods has brought him over the years will be even more considerable.
Perhaps Baron hit the nail on the head, Al-Fayed said:
"Before that, I need Your Highness the Duke to agree to a request of mine..."
"Please go ahead."
"I hope that if you acquire it you will ensure that the tradition I established there continues."
Hearing the other party's request, Barron nodded and said,
"I am a person who respects tradition very much, but the trend is always changing. Sir, you should be able to understand that some outdated...traditions sometimes need to be changed."
I believe Al-Fayed can understand the implication of Baron's words.
Everyone who walks into Harrods will be amazed by the luxurious furnishings inside the department store.
Dark marble, gilded walls, hieroglyphic reliefs, bronze spiral staircases and even sphinxes… this is the luxurious ancient Egyptian palace style, which all originated from Harrods' current owner, Al Fayed. After he bought Harrods in 1985, he spent a lot of money to renovate the entire building. The original elegant British style has been diluted by the Middle Eastern luxury style.
If the current style of Harrods can be preserved by Barron for a while, then the statue of Diana and Al Fayed's son Dodi, which is very annoying to the royal family, I am afraid that Barron will not be able to keep it after the acquisition. Well, returning the property to its original owner is the best option.
By doing so, you can also gain the favor of the royal family.
Of course, the reason why Barron decided to acquire Harrods was not this, but because this department store is still very successful. Even during the subsequent subprime mortgage crisis, Harrods still performed well and was not greatly affected.
And as the world's most profitable department store, Harrods has only had one store in London, which also shows its strong money-making ability.
Al-Fayed's statement also shows that he has basically agreed to the sale. Next, it is up to Yulia Moore to complete the acquisition process.
…
October 18th was Barron's birthday again, and he celebrated his second 27th birthday again.
Ahead of Barron's birthday, the British automotive group outlined plans for new models across its brands.
These include Bentley's new flagship model Mulsanne, which is still equipped with the Volkswagen Group's W12 engine, Aston Martin's sports car Vantage, which is equipped with a Cosworth V8 engine, and its first SUV model DBX.
In fact, except for Aston Martin's SUV model DBX, which needs to start from design, the remaining Bentley Mulsanne and Aston Martin Vantage sports cars already have ready-made design plans.
Because for many car brands, it usually takes 5-10 years from the day the design director first puts his ideas on paper to the day the first customer car is produced.
In fact, there is almost never a new vehicle model project that goes according to the expected time plan.
No matter what model is ultimately launched, how many cars are built, whether it's just 1,000 Aston Martins or 30,000 Land Rovers, none of them go according to plan, they are always delayed.
Therefore, when designers design a car, they are actually designing for the future ten years from now - because today's designs will not be produced and purchased by people until about 10 years later.
This means that many of the brands under the British Motor Group were designed several years or even decades ago, and may even have concept models or even concept car models.
It's just that before that, these models were promoted to different degrees and ultimately not mass-produced due to many factors, such as being difficult to achieve with the technology at the time, or not conforming to market trends, or other reasons.
And often, the initial concept cars look futuristic, but by the time they are released, they look more realistic, which means that there will be many changes in the details of the appearance.
So in fact, what Bentley, Aston Martin, and even Jaguar and Land Rover need to do is to select the one that best suits their future positioning among these designs and put it into mass production.
Among these, what Barron is most concerned about is naturally Bentley's new flagship model Mulsanne.
He went to Bentley's design center in person, and among those models, he saw one that looked very familiar - that should be the design concept drawing of the new Mulsanne released in 2009 in his previous life.
This design reminded Barron of the powerful and unique front face design of the previous Mulsanne, which retained the two iconic designs of Bentley: the grille dome and round headlights.
The long hood, short front overhang and long rear overhang, the muscular design and clear lines at the rear waistline extend elegantly from front to back. This series of exterior designs exudes a strong British classical charm.
In fact, the name Mulsanne was used by Bentley as early as 1980. However, the Mulsanne at that time was a copy of the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit, using the same interior and exterior design, retaining only Bentley's unique grille.
"The Mulsanne I hope to see is the pinnacle of British luxury car manufacturing. It should be the best Bentley car ever that Bentley can be proud of!"
Baron told Bentley executives after selecting the car design.